When we finally find life somewhere out there beyond Earth, it’ll be at the end of a long search. Life probably won’t announce its presence to us, we’ll have to follow a long chain of clues to find it. Like scientists keep telling us, at the start of that chain of clues is water.

Finding past or present microbial life on Mars would without doubt be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And in just two years’ time, there’s a big opportunity to do so, with two rovers launching there to look for signs of life – Mars2020 by NASA and ExoMars by the European Space Agency and Roscosmos.

It has been theorized that a world could be habitable even if doesn't orbit a star. After the expulsion of moons from solar systems, moons and planets could be close enough to create tidal heating, potentially making a rogue moon habitable.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible "rock stripes."The ground texture seen in recent images from the rover resembles a smudged version of very distinctive stone stripes on some mountain slopes on Earth that result from repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of wet soil. But it might also be due to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a combination.

A new report casts doubt that Dyson will meet its goal of producing an electric vehicle with a solid-state battery by 2020. However, the report does note that the company is no longer focusing on just one EV, but three.

If you go down to the shore today, you’re sure of a big surprise. Many will have witnessed the presence of a starfish or two when visiting the seashore or a public aquarium. Starfish come in an exciting range of colours and sizes, but have you ever given a thought to how this multi-armed wonder manages to exist in our oceans when it’s so unlike the other animals we know?

Scientists from the Netherlands have successfully created a 2-qubit silicon quantum processor. Silicon is widely used in current computer hardware, and the team hopes their success will eventually make it easier to control and produce quantum chips.

The biggest black holes in the Universe are growing faster than the rate of stars being formed in their galaxies, according to two new studies using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes.

With each new exoplanet discovery, we expand our understanding of how the universe operates. In a recent and major discovery, the K2 mission found nearly 100 new exoplanets outside of our Solar System.

Our Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy – two giant galaxies in our local patch of the universe – are heading for an immense collision with each other in only a few billion years’ time. So which will dominate in this intergalactic tussle?

Starfighters Inc. has a deal with NASA to develop a training program for space tourists. The company currently has just one customer. With multiple companies planning to launch space tourists in the next few years, that will likely soon change.

Three billion miles away on the farthest known major planet in our solar system, an ominous, dark storm – once big enough to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean from Boston to Portugal – is shrinking out of existence as seen in pictures of Neptune taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies wants to make it possible to travel from Cleveland to Chicago in less than 30 minutes. Now, it has permission from state officials to move forward with a feasibility study.

Each year, the world invests billions of dollars into cancer research, but because cancer cells multiply rapidly and without limit, developing effective treatments for the disease is extremely difficult. Now, a new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell may reveal a way we could create a cancer vaccine, essentially training our bodies to fight the disease before it even takes hold.

Scientists have a pretty good picture of how the universe formed and evolved – and how it is structured today. This knowledge all fits together nicely as a “standard cosmological model”, which has been able to successfully predict and describe many observational data in the universe. But now and then scientists discover something that threatens to tear down this valuable framework.

Age-based risk calculators that work out your “real biological age” are increasingly popular. We hear about body age on health shows like How to Stay Young; gyms promote reductions in metabolic age and fitness age; games and apps claim to lower your brain age; and researchers have developed specific organ measures like heart age, lung age and bone age.

Beauty, grace, mystery — this magnificent spiral galaxy has all the qualities of a perfect galactic Valentine. Captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the galaxy NGC 3344 presents itself face-on, allowing astronomers a detailed look at its intricate and elegant structure. And Hubble’s ability to observe objects over a wide range of different wavelengths reveals features that would otherwise remain invisible.

Scars are a normal part of life — for now, anyway. In the future, that might not be the case, as researchers have developed a method to eliminate scarring by prompting wounds to heal as normal skin rather than as scar tissue.

It is said that the universe is made up of over 80 percent dark matter. What dark matter exactly is, however, has continued to elude experts. Theories abound, and a recent one suggests an entirely different approach involving gravitational waves.

Roughly half a century ago, Cornell astronomer Frank Drake conducted Project Ozma, the first systematic SETI survey at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. Since that time, scientists have conducted multiple surveys in the hopes of find indications of “technosignatures” – i.e. evidence of technologically-advanced life (such as radio communications).